Britons joining Kurds to fight IS 'pose security risk' to UK

British volunteers fighting against so-called Islamic State in Syria pose a domestic security threat to the UK, a foreign affairs think tank has said.

Since 2014, hundreds of people from Western countries, including the UK, have joined Kurdish rebel group YPG.

The Henry Jackson Society said YPG was a front for the banned PKK group and warned that those who joined it could be drawn into terror activity at home.

It said the government urgently needed to stop Britons joining the group.

Security minister Ben Wallace said: "We deter all UK citizens from travelling overseas to fight with any form of irregular forces.

"People who do so should be aware that they potentially open themselves up to a range prosecutions linked to such behaviour."

Firearms and explosives

The Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism, at the Henry Jackson Society, said the YPG was a subsidiary of the PKK, a "violent terrorist organisation" banned by the UK and the US.

The foreign affairs think tank said there was a danger those who fought for the group could participate in its "criminal-terror activities" or carry out "lone actor atrocities" when they returned home.

The training they are given in firearms and explosives also posed a risk, the report said.

Four British men have been killed fighting with the Kurds against IS and 29 Western volunteers have died in total.

Kurdish fighters on the ground in Syria have driven IS out of large areas of territory.